We want to create our own trip 'cheaply!' booking flights, trains, buses as we go. Anyone done this before? Was it cheaper than buying a set RTW ticket in advance?
My partner and I are setting off in June, but as usual we are not following the traditional rules!!!
We plan to inter-rail for 2 months then do the trans Siberian rail to Beijing. Then follow the silk road route through China to India then on via Vietnam, Thailand, Malasia and Singapore. This is where we wanted to take our first flight to Perth.
From here we want to do the Australia trip then Fiji, New Zealand to South America, Caribbean, Mexico, North America, Canada, Africa and home to Yorshire!!!
We can get a set pre booked ticket but at quite a steep price, and we also wish to travel for 18months, not 12.
Any feedback regarding booking as you go on a budget would be great. As well as any warnings against it. (This is a once in a lifetime thing, I don't want to screw it up!!!)
Reply to this I'm having a lot of luck at the moment booking one way flights... but! - there are caveats and pro's and con's.
Watch out on Visa regulations - many require that if you fly in you have a flight out with in the Visa period... Thailand, Malaysia, USA even. Some airlines will not allow you to board unless you have this. I get around this by - buying refundable returns, or budget flights that I won't use to the nearest out of country destination.
The big flight sites, expedia, ebookers, cheapflights, travelocity - sometimes have last minute deals. If you can handle the uncertainty you can just leave everything to the last minute - hotwire.com and lastminute.com are two sites that specialise in this as well.
You could get a RTW ticket... and default on the last flight at the end of the twelve months... I can't advise on the logistics, but if you left a long overland stretch for the last 6 months... say Cape Town to Yorkshire.... and purchased a RTW with the last few days set to stay in Cape Town - you could just miss that last flight. It might work out cheaper...
Any more ideas?
Reply to this Flights within SE Asia are very cheap. (Often the cheapest way to travel!) You can also fly very cheaply from Singapore to Australia - there are very cheap flights to Darwin (I was considering flying to Darwin from Singapore, I don't know the cost of the Perth flight). Some of the rest of the route I don't know. I know that it is not cheap to fly out of the States to Africa. All the cheap flights to African destinations go from European cities. Often the cheapest flights are from the countries ex-colonizer! So, the cheapest flights to Francophone West Africa depart from Paris or Marseilles. London is the cheapest place for flights to its ex-colonies! But flights within the African continent are expensive, except in South Africa. (If you want to fly from J'burg to Namibia for instance).
Reply to this You'll have to do your homework, but Royal Air Maroc has some deals from the States to Casablanca from time to time, and you can get cheap US to London. I've been most satisfied flying from the States to Dakar or Jburg via SA Air. Just look for deals.
No matter what I do, I've not been able to get around that I never quite want to go back when the ticket says I must. Sometimes it's early, sometimes late.. but I've been fortunate enough to have tickets that I could amend travel dates on to adapt for a relatively small fee.
For all the little details that may annoy, South African Air has been very good to me, as has Air France. Delta's about the bottom of my list, and Continental comes in just a spot better than them.
I could have saved myself a lot of hassle by flying in some deathtrap from Guinea Conakry to Bamako, but I'd have missed the adventure, the countryside, the changes, the journey. Maybe I'd have been smarter off to take the rail from Dakar to Bamako (the air conditioned one owned by Senegal, not the non-climatized one owned by Mali.) Who knows? What I do know is that the journey is the largest part of what addicted me to the countries, got that red dust seeping throgh my skin and into my soul. So I guess part of it depends on if you just want to SEE the places or if you want to KNOW them.
Finally, speaking as a discontent and nearly expat. Yank, save the money and time you'd have spent on N.Am. and extend some of your less developed regions.
Peace & Creation,
JT
Reply to this We've been on the road for the last 7 months (Europe - Asia - Aus/NZ) and we've done almost completely one way, point-to-point bookings. You do usually end up paying a bit of a premium over a RTW, but for us, the flexibility is key. It gives you the ability to go as you go . . . not as your tickets say. I recommend www.kayak.com for comparative pricing, makes it easy.
I do echo Ali, though - make sure you know what countries you need a purchased forward ticket to get in through customs - that's a real pain otherwise!
Reply to this We're from Yorkshire too, and doing just what you're doing except not travelling round quite as far! It's definitely more expensive buying tickets as you go, I would say but it totally suits us. The whole plan for us was to have flexibility, we dont know where we want to be or when, we want to be free to decide based on our experience. Its working out really well as we're blessed with all sorts of opportunities we otherwise wouldnt have. For instance, right now, we are house sitting for a friend for a while. So we have a base from which to explore and it's free. It means we're staying here much longer than we thought we would, but it also means we get to really know the place.
Definitely check out which countries need you to have an onward ticket, otherwise you could really be stuffed. We've had no problems in Thailand, but many people do, India too (I guess we've been lucky). There's a great site: www.skyscanner.net which finds budget flights all over the place. It doesnt list everything but has quite a few.
Have fun planning, and whereabouts in Yorkshire are you from?
kate
Reply to this For a last minute travel deal, check out some of these travel tips. You can save a lot of money if you can pack up and leave ASAP!!
Check out this link :
Cheap Last Minute Travel Reply to this This is a question we pondered and researched prior to embarking upon our trip over four months ago. We will be travelling for another 8 months or so. We are booking as we go and have found the flexibility is working well for us. We never know where we will go or how long we will be staying. We have radically modified our original plans on multiple occasions already. We are not trapped by setting agendas based on pre-purchased tickets.
My wife has mastered the art of finding killer airfares. Here are a few things to consider:
1. Check local and regional discount airlines first.
2. Check the discount brokers such as Kayak or Expedia etc...
3. Get smart on which days are the best to purchase tickets and timelines to save dollars.
4. Check airline websites at various times of the day. Prices tend to fluctuate during the day. My wife saved over $600USD on a flight for both of us by booking the flight right atfer midnight at the home office. Spend a little time checking airfares during the day so you can get a feel for price flucuations.
5. Consider overland routes once you reach a primary flight hub. Buses, boats and trains may be a great alternative to flying shorter distances. Overnight trains and busses have saved us money on an additional nights accomodations and will ofset the cost of the bus or train. Just be careful of overnight trains and buses. Security of belongings are an issue on some routes. Be smart.
6. As other have stated, be aware of entry requirements for each country and plan accordingly. We arrived in Thailand without onward transportation and no one asked. This is perhaps we are a little bit older than many travelers. We have talked to many people who were asked for a ticket showing onward movement.
Good luck in your decision--it is one left up to each traveler.
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